This excellent article describes why the success of Open Source software development is not a mystery but can be explained easily: It is successful, because it is economically successful.

Bruce Perens' article "State of Open Source Message: A New Decade For Open Source"

On February 9, 1998, Bruce Perens published the Open Source Definition and the public announcement of the Open Source Initiative that Eric Raymond and he were starting. This was the first time that the general public heard what Open Source was about. Read more about the important growth steps of Open Source in the full version of the article that OSADL is reproducing with the permission of the author.